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Project review #2: Population Tire Remake

Another project I want to talk about is one of my proudest Unity creations, and game projects in general. Alas, it is a fan-recreation of the flash game, Population Tire.

So what is this game? Well, let's focus on the original for the time being.

Population Tire is a flash game created by The Brothers Chaps in June of 2003. The concept is simple. Using your mouse, you bounce a small, pixellated tire around the screen, trying to keep it off the ground. Various objects in the area can help or hinder your goal, like power-ups from Strong Sad, strong cold fronts pushing the tire around, and seagulls you can strike down for an additional bonus.

The original game is a blast, but it isn't without its' drawbacks. For one, the game is created in Flash, which is becoming increasingly more obsolete, and furthermore typically only works on PCs, leaving mobile users and game consoles completely out. It is also locked to a certain framerate, which I can only assume is to make the game run better on the slower computers of the early 2000s. But it's 2019, and we have several times that power in our pockets for countless hours of the day, so why don't we revamp and revise it?

So I got to work on recreating the game in Unity's physics engine, with a few tweaks. First of all, the tire can now rotate freely, which gives it a nice effect, particularly when you hit it and it starts spinning. The gravity has been tweaked, although I'm still not quite happy with it, so I'll be revising the physics a lot more in the future. And because this is a fan-recreation, I can add more features that many people might find enjoyable or useful. For instance, one of my plans is to add a global leaderboard that can show the crazy high scores obtainable with enough dedication. I also want to add some more wacky powerups to spice up the gameplay, and perhaps add a mission mode or achievements to keep players engaged.

But my purpose for recreating this game wasn't just to get it off the ancient Flash platform, or to add additional features. My purpose... was mobile.

This remake of Population Tire is fully compatible with both iOS and Android, in various aspect ratios. The game features a single-touch control, allowing you to bounce the tire with your finger, just as you would with a mouse. This allows you to take your fun on the go! The only issues, from what I can see thus far, is that the size of everything is a little bit small, making it harder to play on smaller phones, but iPads and Android tablets should be able to run it just fine.

I started this project back in March, and have been working on and off on it since. Small tweaks, like adding a title screen and adding multi-touch support, will be coming in the future. But if enough people are interested, I will release a demo to my Patrons, so you can try the game for yourself and see how you like it!

And for those who want to play the original, you can visit the website at this link:

 http://homestarrunner.com/pop_tire.html 

Thank you for your continued support! I hope to bring you more project reviews and updates very soon!

Project review #1: Metal Yoshi

The first project I want to talk about is my Discord bot, called Metal Yoshi.

Metal Yoshi started back in late 2017 as a single script bot, with only a handful of commands. no databases, and everything stored in simple .json files. It was running on my first ever server (which was essentially a Dell computer crammed with hard drives), and it was only ever in my testing Discord server. The above screenshot you see is the earliest I can find from it, but I can still remember the excitement of finally getting the bot to respond to commands in a controlled manner, and later the thrill of embeds working just perfectly.

Metal Yoshi was a project I worked on with a couple of friends, and it was my first ever time working with Javascript and Node.JS, and while I did have prior knowledge with other programming languages, this was my first major coding project. I started it with the expectation of only being able to get basic commands working, and nothing else. I knew nothing about databases, file management or anything; it was a total shot in the dark whether I would even continue development.

Fast forward 2 years later, and this bot has become a major project for me. I've poured several days of coding, trial and error into it, and I've come out with something that I consider impressive. I know more about Javascript now than I ever have, and the knowledge has helped me to learn other languages as well, like C# and C++. Metal Yoshi has a full SQLite database integrated in, many people use it every day, and it is able to run on it's own without needing intervention or restarts. I've even dedicated a small VPS to it, to make responses snappy. I've learned embeds properly, and ditched multiple libraries I used to think I needed. The bot now has 80+ separate commands, including music playback via Discord voice channels, a currency system, and even virtual marriage to other Discord users.

Metal Yoshi has been forked so many times, off into many separate projects. For instance, I have a version that is used by one of my best friends to mirror her stream chat into her Discord server, and visa versa. Shoutouts if you're reading this! Aside from that, I've created versions of the bot for specific Discord servers and purposes, and Metal Yoshi has been, and still is the biggest project I've ever worked on. It's always a work in progress, but I'm hoping to share some of that progress with all of you in the future!